Dear Left comrades

The audacity of post-truth to present itself as a valid category will be a matter of historical inquiry for theorists and academicians, but the manner in which it is being increasingly utilized by the dominant and powerful has dispossessed the oppressed of their most potent weapon, their authority over the truth and reality of their own experiences, their telling, and retelling of trauma. “Alternative facts”, a close contender on the list of worse misnomers of all times, hopes to disguise its brutal violence by appearing as just another innocent fact while simultaneously blurring the line between the factual repression that the minority lived and the apathetic opinions that the marked sites of knowledge creation generated. The elections to the Jawaharlal Nehru University student union have also become a sad instance of how there are multiple narratives to what happened, yet none plausible enough to explain the return of a unity hitherto united only in failure.Failure to seek justice for Najeeb.Failure to exhume the draconian UGC circular.Failure to preserve the diversity of the campus.Failure to ensure gender sensitization.Wonder who’s victory was the union commemorating with its victory march.

It is a tautological to argue that accepting one is a Dalit or Bahujan is accepting the Brahmanical system that created such rigid categories, yet, what one forgets is the inevitability of this identity and that it cannot be annihilated simply by the Left’s verbal assurance. It has become inescapable and ignoring it cannot erase the humiliation it causes on a routine basis. For students born in families that have been historically forced to clean gutters and polish shoes, the stench of caste has become permanent. It haunts us from cradle to grave. It debilitates us from performing in between. For the students and faculty that have been born in families that have been respected and nurtured since time immemorial by the Brahmanical society, that have held power over the oppressed sections, that have the confidence to decide the parameters on which they perform, a humble reminder to check your privilege once in a while is not too much to ask. Hiding one’s caste doesn’t hide the privilege one enjoys because of it.

It is common wisdom to forget claims, promises and rebukes post elections but certain statements are so humiliating that they cause a permanent wound, one which is only deepened by reminders. During the Ground Body Meeting at the School of Social Sciences JNU this year, a member from the Left unity that emerged ‘victorious’ condescended the Dalit-Bahujan members by reminding them that it was primarily because of the space created by the left that the Dalit-Bahujan students were even allowed to speak freely here. The Dalit-Bahujan students were reminded of their hitherto inferior position in society, alleviated magically by the Left one fine day. A prestigious Leftist academician in lieu of writing an article that garners dialogue and support between the left and the rest, has in fact furthered the same spirit of arrogance by becoming a sermon for what the Ambedkarite parties must and must not do in their co-existence in the space they now enjoy while being ungrateful to the Left that vacated it for them.

It is a season of drawing similarities and hence the discussion on campus and the article, conveniently narrated similarities between the discourse of BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Student Association) and ABVP, which apparently seems to be based on the fact that both have criticized the sacred academia. It is a complex case of false equivalence. Whereas ABVP has criticized the faculty for failing to perform as per ABVP’s self-approved nationalistic calculus, BAPSA has been rightly criticizing the institutional spaces for being casteist and discriminatory. Unless being a nationalist and upholding caste are the same thing, it is fallacious to assume that ABVP and BAPSA have similar voices. One can have various differences with BAPSA and its method of functioning, yet speaking that BAPSA must not ‘raise’ (not create) the question of caste is disturbing especially if the Left’s commitment to ensuring social justice is to be believed. And while we are at it, raising the question of caste is not similar to creating caste. Caste exists. The discrimination it causes exists. The privileges it enables exist. Being able to ignore the question of caste is in itself a privilege.From being based on a system of Brahmanical merit where knowledge creation, access, and disbursement are reserved for the upper caste elite, to being non-sensitive to the needs of the students from the marginalized sections who are nearly considered imposters pretending they even deserve the holy Amrit of education, the academic spaces not only reek of casteism but survive in a subtle pretence that caste is absent and the Ambedkarite forces are unnecessarily creating caste. Dalit-Bahujan students are invisibilized in campus spaces, Dalit-Bahujan teachers are not recruited, Dalit-Bahujan narratives are missing from the academic curriculum. So the right question is not where caste is but where are the Dalit-Bahujans? If at all the Dalit students reach the sanctum sanctorum of these elite institutions, they are welcomed with at best an indifference that transforms into social acceptance soon or vice versa, and at worst a legal and political vacuum for addressing their concerns.

The arrogant tone in which the Leftists declare “that the Dalit-Bahujan students ‘must’ begin by recognizing the immense contribution that left politics has made to provide them an enabling atmosphere” stenches not just of a sad narcissism but also a deliberate lack of comprehension of the struggles of the Dalit-Bahujan voices who have fought for their space.(This’must’ is rather the Lefts self-affirmation lest its utopia collapse under the weight of its own identity) This ‘enabling atmosphere’ (read atmosphere with reduced physical violence) was not served on a platter to the Dalit-Bahujan students. It has been taken by them. It is historically inaccurate and patronizing to erase the struggles of Dalit-Bahujan students in which they resisted an onslaught on their presence, and were forced to perform as per the Brahmanical meritocracy that the Left either refused to acknowledge or failed to remove. (Have you forgotten the Mandal Revolution?)

And while we are recognizing the contribution of Left, let us take a moment to say thank you. Thank you so much for being an ally, for not hurling casteist slurs, for not beating us to death, for hiding your Janeu. But expecting the Dalit-Bahujan students to forget the violence they have faced, and continue to face even during the Left’s movements and protests by casteless genderless comrades on behalf of all ‘casteless genderless victims’, expecting them to forget that despite the presence of left-leaning committed faculty the Nafey Committee report has not been implemented and that in spite of the movements by the Left, the anti-reservation, anti Dalit-Bahujan UGC circular has managed to be implemented, to forget that Muthukrishnan is dead and so is Anitha, will be a little too much gratitude disproportionate to the Left’s contribution.

It is also slightly far-fetched to equate BAPSA’s criticism of certain academicians for not having done enough on the question of caste as ‘anti-intellectualism’. It is academically naïve and politically dangerous to presume the binary between issues that are worthy of academic pursuit and issues that are related to the wider representation to the students from the Dalit Bahujan communities. More importantly, neither intellectuals nor intellect can be isolated from their social locations and hence considering that research happens without being influenced by the logic of caste is either delusional or scheming.

While the author of the aforementioned article (The left must expand space for the Bahujan- Deccan Herald) has mentioned how the left groups have successfully transformed many students from privileged backgrounds to become more sympathetic to the cause of those coming from lesser backgrounds, it appears as if the transformers themselves forgot to address their own shortcomings in understanding that since oppression is dynamic, the corresponding sympathy shall also need to be revised when the victims achieve partial justice and fight their own battles. More importantly, if during this act of generating sympathy and social transformation, the victims remind you of the oppression and violence that you are committing, would you listen to the ungrateful non-intellectuals who have forgotten your blessings? The pretense of sympathy works only as long as the weak Dalit-Bahujan does not ask for their rightful share of power. If the Left’s commitment to ensuring social justice for Dalits and Bahujans is so colossal, how is it that as soon as the marginalized sections demand their rightful share in during elections and otherwise, they face the wrath of the Left intelligentsia and are labeled as foot soldiers of ABVP?

Dear Left Comrades, thank you for being an ally. Now, leave us alone.

Humbly,

Simple Rajrah

A Bahujan student